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Your hols

Q We're going on a cruise with our two children, and want to be able to keep in contact with them while they're off on their own on board. Do walkie-talkies work on a large ship?

Gary Eyles, Solihull

A Yes, they do, which means you get to fulfil your secret Nasa fantasies ("Houston, do you read me? Over") while getting the cricket scores from little Johnny as he hurtles by the television in the sports bar.

You'll also be able to hear them claim convincingly that they're reading in the ship's library, even though the muffled laughter in the background suggests otherwise.

All that steel presents a challenge to radio waves, but unless one of you is below decks at the bow and the other is low down in the stern, the signals should get through all right. The good news is that you'll save a fortune on mobile-phone roaming